Love is messy, complicated and painful.
That’s the message that pops up again and again in “Closer,” Patrick Marber’s drama about four people whose love lives become tangled in a span of four years. Marber follows their affairs, fights, heartbreak and passion in microscopic detail. The drama never pulls any punches, and it’s enough to elicit deja vu for anyone who’s ever been through the minefield of a bad relationship.
The Vintage Theatre company’s production stays true to that sometimes-uncomfortable degree of detail. Director Bernie Cardell and a strong cast of four venture into every uncomfortable nook and cranny of the text. With a bare set designed by Tim Barbiaux set up in the Vintage’s 70-seat black box theater, the power of this show comes almost entirely from the strength of the four performances. Casey Andree, Erica Fox, Haley Johnson and Eric Mather all offer profoundly moving moments; they take on the demands of Marber’s text with depth and pathos.
That’s not exactly easy, considering how unworthy of sympathy these selfish characters can be. The flaw of the Vintage show is the flaw of the characters themselves — namely, in the fact that it’s hard to feel a true connection to these four characters. The drama stems from the trials and travails of emotionally bankrupt people.
The drama kicks off in London in 2009 as an aspiring writer named Dan (Casey Andree) strikes up a conversation with Alice (Erica Fox) in the emergency room of a hospital. Alice has just been injured in a car accident, and the pair lay the foundation for a fling as she waits for care for her wounded leg. Larry (Eric Mather), an attending doctor, takes a look at the wound.
From there, Marber starts a pattern of sudden shifts in time. It’s months later, and Dan and Alice are officially a couple. Dan, a onetime obituary writer for a newspaper, is working on his first book, a novel based on the travels, love affairs and heartbreaks of Alice. But the bonds of the couple’s love are fleeting. Almost immediately after we meet a pair of lovers who are both scarred by bad experiences and stilted ambition, their ties start to fray. Dan meets an aspiring photographer named Anna (Haley Johnson), and his lust starts to wander. He confesses his love to Anna, even as he’s living with Alice.
The triangle expands after Larry and Anna connect. After Dan poses as a woman in an online chat room and pulls a prank on Larry; he heads to the aquarium looking to meet who he believes is a buxom and eager mate. Instead, he runs into Anna, who explains that he’s been tricked. Marber jumps forward in time again, and Larry and Anna are a couple. Regardless of their new status and of the fact that Dan and Alice are still living together, Dan has kept up his efforts to seduce Anna.
Even after Larry and Anna have married, Dan is bent on winning Anna. He professes his love, he urges her to “jump.” Those efforts pay off. Dan and Anna start an affair, a fact that comes out after another shift in setting. Marber combines the action between the two couples as Dan and Anna both confess to their infidelity. In a single scene, on a single stage, the drama between both flawed couples play out.
From there, the real emotional fallout of infidelity and selfishness starts to unravel. Alice starts working in a strip club. Larry finds her there on a chance visit, and that pair starts up an affair. The shuffle between the two couples continue until the end of the second act.
And that’s the dynamic of the show. There’s no real sense of resolution here; the drama is more about capturing the fickleness of love and the flaws of the human heart. Cardell and the cast rise to that demand well. Fox is heartbreakingly flawed as Alice, and Johnson’s expressive acting lends many layers to the character of Anna. Andree is convincingly slimy as Dan, and Mather shows off a new set of skills as Larry (we’re used to seeing Mather shine as a comedic actor).
Like love, the drama here is messy and complicated. There’s no finality, no resolution. Considering the show’s themes, the structure works, but the selfishness of the characters get in the way of any true emotional connection.
“Closer”
Runs until July 21 at the Vintage Theatre
1468 Dayton St. in Aurora.
Tickets start at $20.
Information: 303-856-7830 or vintagetheatre.org.
* * *